Taboo Mage - Chapter 43 - The Mysterious Man Appears
Once again, Jue Chi brought me back to Chan Guang Monastery, where I listened to the sounds of Buddhist chants throughout the entire night. By the next morning, when I finally opened my eyes, I felt a hint of strength returning to my body.
Jue Chi had placed a basin of water beside my bed and, upon seeing that I was awake, he urged me to wash up quickly as we had an important guest.
I grunted, struggling to rise from the bed. This esteemed guest was here to visit his monastery, not me. Why did I have to get ready and meet someone?
Do I look like a social butterfly? I’m still a patient here! I’m still a guest!
Before I could give him a scornful look, Jue Chi had already dropped a set of gray monk’s robes next to me.
In the center of the Buddha hall, a large incense candle was burning, with several plates of fruit laid out in front. As I emerged from the meditation room, I saw Jue Chi sitting across from me at a low table by the entrance. Opposite him, a man was seated with his back to me.
From behind, he appeared to be a man in his forties, dressed in a simple Tang suit, his thick black hair peppered with white, giving him an added air of mystery.
Upon seeing me, Jue Chi smiled and nodded in my direction.
Curious, I walked over to Jue Chi’s side and carefully scrutinized the man sitting opposite. To my surprise, the man, who seemed to be in his forties from the back, had a clean, youthful face, with lips so red and teeth so white that the phrase seemed almost an understatement.
His skin was so delicate it looked younger than mine…
I stared in astonishment, pointing at the man across from us, unable to recover my composure.
“Qingshu, this is Mr. Chen,” Jue Chi stood up and introduced me to the man across the table.
Dazed, I extended my hand, and the man stood up and shook it, “Are you the Gu Family kid?”
“Ah? Yes!” I nodded.
The Gu Family kid? His tone sounded almost like my grandfather’s. Our family is down to just me now, and I’ve never heard about my grandfather having an illegitimate child who could call me ‘kid’.
“Reach out your hand, let me see,” Mr. Chen said as he grasped my hand and flipped it to look at my wrist. Before I could gather my thoughts, his three fingers had already pinched my pulse.
A suddenly serious expression crossed his face as he stared at me intently with his cold eyes, his fingers squeezing my wrist painfully.
“What’s wrong?” Jue Chi noticed his unusual demeanor and asked in a deep voice, his face full of concern.
Mr. Chen released my hand and shook his head slightly, “It’s more serious than I anticipated, but fortunately, I arrived in time.”
The two conversed as if solving a riddle, exchanging words while I stood by, unable to interject, feeling somewhat frustrated.
“Hey! Are you two done yet? What is actually going on?”
Jue Chi smiled and said he hadn’t finished his daily practice with the wooden fish and needed to return to the Buddha hall to continue.
Only Mr. Chen and I were left in the courtyard. He looked at me as if I were a rare treasure, creating a slightly eerie atmosphere as I sat across from him at the low table.
His gaze was piercing, as if it could see right through me, making me feel bashful and causing me to turn my head away.
“Do you have something you need to give me?”
“Ah? What thing?” I was taken aback by his question. This man was bizarre, diagnosing my pulse out of nowhere and now asking such a strange question.
“Ah, my apologies for not being clear. As a young man from the Gu Family, you must have a jade that has been passed down through your lineage.”
My eyes widened as I instinctively reached into my pocket, where I felt the bulge of the jade I had found in a box left by my Grandfather just yesterday.
Suddenly, a thought flashed through my mind.
After hesitating for a moment, I took out the piece of jade and placed it on the low table.
“Indeed, it’s still here.” The man opposite me picked up the jade and caressed it gently, then, as if by magic, he produced a box from his clothing.
Inside the box lay a jade lotus flower, its surface smooth and its color soft, yet it seemed to be missing a piece in the middle.
I stared in amazement as the man placed my jade gently into the center of the jade lotus flower. It fit perfectly, without a single gap.
“Hello, my name is Chen Qi.”
I had not yet recovered from the immense shock when the person opposite me straightened up and introduced himself to me again, solemnly.
I nodded blankly, still unable to gather my thoughts.
Chen Qi tidied up the box on the low table and then poured himself a cup of tea from the purple clay teapot, casually mentioning that he knew my Grandfather.
The first words out of Chen Qi’s mouth completely floored me. He knew my Grandfather? This young man who looked barely in his twenties?
As if to validate his statement, Chen Qi pulled a photograph from the bag he was carrying and placed it in front of me.
I took it and examined it closely. The photo was slightly yellowed, and the borders even had the patterned arcs commonly seen in the 1980s.
There were two people standing side by side in the photo; on the left was Chen Qi, the man sitting across from me, and on his right was a man in a green military uniform… he looked somewhat familiar…
“Don’t recognize him?” Chen Qi, holding his teacup, gently blew on it and asked with a smile.
I shook my head; it seemed familiar, but I couldn’t place him.
Chen Qi then took another photo from his pocket and placed it before me. I glanced at it and laughed, “Isn’t this my Grandfather… my Grandfather?”
I startled myself with the thought, holding the two photos up for comparison. Indeed, the man standing on the right in the group photo was my Grandfather!
Moreover, it was my Grandfather in his early twenties…
I gasped in astonishment, unable to believe what I saw in the photos and the man across from me. Decades had passed, yet Chen Qi had not changed at all!
In fact, he looked even younger than he did in the photos!
“Your Grandfather was Gu Rongjun, your Father was Gu Xiaomin. Your Grandfather passed away thirty years ago from a sudden heart attack. Your father died in a car accident. And your ancestors have been yin-yang life amulet masters for generations. However, without exception, all who took up the mantle of yin-yang life amulet master met untimely deaths.”
Chen Qi spoke calmly, but each sentence he uttered made my thoughts increasingly muddled.
